Pages of Interest

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Interview with Walter Bennett

Can you
give us a brief overview of your latest book? Is it part of a series?

Leaving Tuscaloosa follows the journeys of two young men, one black
and one white, through 36 hours of racial turmoil in a town in the deep South
during the hottest part of the Civil Rights era. Both young men, once childhood
friends, are forced to face their destinies on issues of race, common humanity,
and their own moral character. Their winding journeys through hatred, love and
lust, moral choices, and increasing violence, come together in a moving,
gripping climax.

Do you
have a favorite character?

My favorite character is
the black liquor-store owner, Rosemont (Razorblade) Greene. He is a wily
survivor and represents one of the essential instincts that got African
Americans through so many years of oppression. He is also a very reliable and
acute observer of life and the other characters. But the main reason I like him
is that he more-or-less walked into the novel and started talking. He really
got the story moving, and it was all I could do as an author to keep him from
taking over. He knew a lot more about writing a novel than I did.

What is
your writing process? Do you listen to music or do you like silence?

I need time alone and
space to write. And silence. I am amazed that some of our best writers—fiction
and poetry—write in coffee shops, etc. Writing is a very private and intense
process for me. I do not listen to music, but sometimes I read other writers
including poets, to get me started. Silvia Plath, for some reason, is a
favorite. Ditto Craig Nova, Graham Greene, and James Salter.

Do you
outline your story or just go where your muse takes you?

My muse is fickle, as they
say, but when she’s hot, she’s hot, and I trust her a lot more than I do any
linear outline I could come up with. I basically wing it. When that works,
magic starts to happen (see Rosemont Greene above). That is the true joy of
writing. Perhaps things would go faster if I outlined, but the few times I’ve
tried to do that, the outlines got quickly pushed aside into the dustbin of
wherever worthless outlines go.

Did you
hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?

Molly Tinsley at Fuze
Publishing was my editor, and a terrific editor she was! I’ve also had a lot of
readers from a number of writing groups and writing classes. They helped
tremendously.

Did you
hire a graphic artist for your book cover? Were you actively involved in the
creation?

Yes. Pam Chastain from
Chastain Designs in Durham, NC, created the cover for the book. She did a first-rate
job. I met with her and gave her some of my own ideas. She took it from there,
and what she produced—first try—hit the nail on the head. A much deeper and
more moving and engaging cover than I had imagined. It really captured the tone
and atmosphere of the story.

Besides
Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?

It’s available on the Fuze website (and I’m told by the marketing
department that there will be a Valentine’s sale, so go to www.fuzepublishing.com).It’s also available through most ebooks
options—Nook, Ipad, etc. And in print at numerous independent bookstores where
I have done many readings.

Do you
find it difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and
writing your next book?

Hell yes. It’s a real
problem for me. My main love is writing. Marketing anything is way down the
list with things like taking out the garbage and emptying the dishwasher. I
think Facebook and Twitter, along with Amazon, box stores, and fast food
(leaving out politics and religion), are ruining society. I’ll admit, though,
that I like doing readings and meeting with book clubs where I get to talk
about my work. I guess it's partly an ego thing, but I'm proud of this novel,
and I like to engage with people who take it seriously.

What
advice would you give a new author just entering into the self-publishing
arena?

Leaving
Tuscaloosa was published by Fuze Publishing, an independent, hybrid press.While self-publishing has become a popular choice for
writers, given the frozen state of the publishing mainstream, I
wanted a publisher who not
only provided a service, but was also financially and emotionally invested in my work. Fuze diverges from the traditional
publishing model in the extent
to which the publisher and writer commit to work as a team. Fuze is carefully
selective. Its editors
are terrific. Its promotion network
is increasingly effective. I
would suggest to a new author who is considering alternatives to the traditional agent-publisher route to look into new
small presses.

What’s
next for you?

Got another novel in
progress which should be finished within the next 10-20 years. It will blow the
socks off of the writing and publishing universe. Meanwhile, some short stories
and essays, a couple of which are just published or in the pipeline.

Readsy's Best Book Blog 2017

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